An aircraft may include various of sensors for flight control and various operations. The sensors may be part of an aircraft sensor network for sending data collected by the sensors to computing systems that may analyze the data collected by the sensors. For example, an environmental control system for a passenger cabin in an aircraft may use various temperature sensors and airflow sensors to identify changes that may be needed to maintain a desired environment in the passenger cabin.
It should be appreciated that an increased use of aircrafts sensors results in more wiring within an aircraft. The wiring may add cost and weight to the aircraft, and may also be time consuming to install. In order to reduce the wiring within the aircraft, a wireless sensor network may be used. However, implementing wireless networks on an aircraft may present several unique challenges. Some examples of the issues encountered when attempting to implement a wireless network within an aircraft include, for example, power and battery constraints, radio frequency (RF) channel impairments, security, and physical to logical mapping. In particular, existing wireless solutions are not always secure when subjected to interference due to the inherent nature of wireless mediums. Furthermore, it should also be appreciated that accurate physical to logical mapping of wireless nodes may not be accomplished unless there is a high amount of bandwidth available. Thus, there exists a continuing need in the art for a robust, flexible wireless sensor network that overcomes the issues described above.